Kristen Bell commented that it’s all about making beautiful art, something that they are proud of. And then there’s taking that out into the world and from her perspective, getting to go out on stage. It just never really ended from frozen because I’m singing the music and looking out into an audience and seeing people of all ages really singing this music and reminding me how they’ve been touched by it and how they’ve learned to celebrate that thing and something that makes them feel extraordinary in the world, she added.

Into the Unknown

The film’s iconic song, “Let It Go,” with music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez won an Oscar for best achievement in music written for motion picture, original song.

The Lopezes returned for “Frozen 2,” writing seven all-new original songs that capture the emotion, fun, and intrigue in a compelling and forever-contagious way. They credited their daughters for inspiring a lot of the music in the first film, and it seems that perhaps some things never change. “The girls—Anna and Elsa—are growing up,” says Anderson-Lopez. “And our own girls are growing up, too. Our daughters are around the same age as Jennifer Lee’s daughter. They informed the choices we made with ‘Frozen,’ and have also informed the choices we made with ‘Frozen 2.’ As the girls get more independent and have to walk their own paths and face their own moments of crisis without us there to protect them, it’s ushered in a new era of parenting for us, which also made its way into the film.”

Adds Lopez, “The epic tone of the new movie was something we wanted to hit right from the beginning. So, the lullaby, ‘All Is Found,’ that Queen Iduna sings to her young daughters is meant to be a road map to the mythology of the story.”

I grew up doing musical theater and Disney musicals here go hand in hand. All of my favorite Disney movies usually have musical elements in them. And those are the ones that I feel like really stick around forever. The ones that we remember that and seeing them become part of our lives continued Lopez.

Fairy Tale and Myth

The filmmakers found themselves delving into the inner workings of both fairy tales and mythology. “We realized that in the first movie, we unknowingly had both a myth and a fairy tale going on at the same time,” says producer Peter Del Vecho.

“Elsa was definitely a mythic character, which generally carries the weight of the world on their shoulders and do things the rest of us can’t. They also typically suffer a tragic fate which might have happened to Elsa in the first film were it not for Anna.”

Director Jennifer Lee says Anna is the fairy-tale character. “She’s the optimist,” says Lee. “These characters are only human. They’re not magical but often enter into the dangers of a magical world. They go into the belly of the beast, suffering hardship and loss with great struggles, yet rise triumphant.”

But that is just the artistry behind these films. They’re just living, breathing works of art. And there’s so much love and care afforded to all of them. It was really all about story and character that was inspired by Jennifer Lee and Chris Black and the story team making us think about a more complicated and more layered sisterhood story.

Much like the first film, which was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s 1845 fairy tale “The Snow Queen,” “Frozen 2” embraces the tenants of fairy tales, mythology and similar stories that were often written to explain the inexplicable.

The all-new story takes place three years after the conclusion of the first movie: Elsa is queen and Anna is happy to have everyone she loves Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven under one roof.

“‘Frozen 2’ is even bigger and more epic than the first,” says Buck. “But most importantly, in the end ‘Frozen’ and ‘Frozen 2’ work together to form one complete story.”

“Frozen 2” opens in U.S. theaters on Nov. 22, 2019.